North American Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Statistical Programannounced the PCB book-to-bill ratio continued to strengthen, climbing to 1.08, while sales and orders were both down in October.Total North American PCB shipments in October 2016 were 8.3 percent below the same month last year. Year-to-date as of October, shipment growth is up 2.8 percent. Compared to the preceding month, October shipments decreased 13.9 percent.PCB bookings in October decreased 1.8 percent year-on-year, reducing year-to-date bookings growth to -0.1 percent. Compared to the previous month, orders in October 2016 were down by 12.3 percent.“As a leading indicator, the book-to-bill ratio’s dip below parity (1.00) in June and July of this year anticipated last month’s downturn in sales,” said Sharon Starr, IPC’s director of market research. “The flip side of this, however, is that the current strong book-to-bill ratio indicates the probability of a return to growth later this year or in early 2017,” she added.